Nicotine
by Chirine
Summary: After the fall of the prison Beth and Daryl are left with nothing with eachother, as they try to survive and find their family a friendship grows between the unlikely pair as they see eachother in a different light. Rated M for possible future content.


**Hey guys, this is my first TWD/Bethyl fic so this is just a short chapter to test the waters, let me know what you think!**

_Also: I do not own The Walking Dead_

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"We gotta go Beth, we gotta go" she stirred awake with those words ringing in her ear.

She had no idea how long they'd been on the run, searching for their family, it had been long since she stopped counting the days and nights and instead let them seap into eachother seamlessly.

"Go back to sleep" Daryl grunted, his crossbow fixed in his lap and his head tipped back against a tree.

Her back cracked and popped as she sat upright "nah, I'm fine."

It had all felt so surreal, Michonne on her knees, hands bound behind her back and her father next to her on his knees as well, smiling.

In the eighteen years that she had been his daughter she'd never seen that look on his face, a soft smile and eyes that radiated peace.

She surely never expected to see that expression just bare moments before a blade would cut his troath, it haunted her, it comforted her, made her notice that she had her father's eyes just like everybody always said she had.

"Do y'think someone ended him" her voice wasn't even trembling anymore.

Daryl knew who she was talking about "hope so" he mumbled without looking up, letting his fingers glide over the bolt already put into place in case of a walker or worse.

"Me too."

Daryl mostly left her to her own thoughts only providing short answers to her short questions, besides those answers, the occasional "I'm gonna take a piss" and "watch out" he was silent.

Not that she felt like talking, there was too much thinking to do, too many puzzle pieces to fit together.

The most logical thing would be that the entire prison had scattered, she knew that the bus had taken off, but she didn't know what had come of baby Judith, Carl, Rick, Tyreese, the girls, Sasha, Bob, Maggie.

Maggie's scream when their father fell to his side with blood gushing from his neck had gone right through her, she recognized the same burning, shredding ache inside of herself.

She didn't even know anymore how she ended up with Daryl Dixon, out of all people in the prison he was her best chance at survival and she was his best chance at his own demise.

But she'd gotten better, her hand always resting on her knife and not hesitating to take walkers down.

She felt stronger too, leaner, the definition of her muscles showing through her skin.

"C'mon sun's comin' up." Daryl already on his feet offered her his hand to pull herself up.

She shivered, it was getting colder in Georgia and her t-shirt and spring jacket did nothing to ward off the cold, Daryl didn't seem to notice, how could he when he was already working hard to notice so many other things before those things would noticed them.

"We should find a place, it's damn near November" he grunted.

"Then it's almost my birthday" she didn't know why she was smiling, there wouldn't be a party, presents or cake, nor would her family be.

"How old yer gettin'." she was surprised at his interest "nineteen".

They didn't speak for a while and she just followed him like she always did, making sure to walk one or two steps behind him to give him his space.

The forrest was spreading out thinner and if she squeezed her eyes almost shut she could see an abandoned car on the road they were apparantly heading for.

The sun was coming up behind them, shining through the branches of the almost leafless trees she thought it was all kinda beautiful how nature went on while they all seemed to be dying.

A gurgling, moaning noise came from not too far from them and Daryl motioned his free hand back like he always did when he wanted her to walk slower and softer while he raised his crossbow.

The walker that came stumbling to them was missing one arm, it had been a woman once Beth judged from it's clothes.

It's movements came to a stop when Daryl shot an arrow through it's head, just above it's left eye socket.

He stalked towards the remains and pulled one of his remaining four arrows from it's head with a popping sound that she still wasn't used to.

The impact and pull had made the arrow crooked and she watched Daryl swear, break it in half and throw it om the leaf covered ground "c'mon."

While walking she looked at him, the prison's golden boy, something he just couldn't come to see himself which saddened her.

Of all people Daryl Dixon deserved to feel special she thought.

The road became clearly visible now, there were a couple of useless looking cars scattered infront of eachother, the owners probably attacked and eaten by a herd.

Though the odds were slim that they'd find anything usefull, Daryl still wanted to check the cars, so they looked through dashboards, seats and trunks only to come up with one blanket, a candy bar that had probably melted during the heat of the summer and a can of lighter fluid.

The last car to check looked the least beat up of the bunch "alright let's see if we can get this one to work" Daryl mumbled and she watched him scoot onto the blood stained car seat, watched as his hands ripped the dashboard apart before he stared at the wires hanging out.

"Could you show me how 't do that" she asked and he looked up at her leaning against the car.

"Sweet li'l Beth Greene wants to learn how to wire a car" he almost sounded amused, it made her smile.

"Well I figured you were a good teacher since I'm so handy with my knife now, thought you'd maybe teach me other things as well" she felt herself blush when she heard how sugestive she had sound "y'know wiring cars, hunting, tracking".

Daryl huffed "sure, c'mon sit" and he moved over to the next seat after looking into every possible direction for any signs of approaching walkers.

He was hunched over and their thighs were touching, her and Daryl almost never touched, only when he was shoving her away when a walker came for her.

And of course there had been last week when he'd been awake for two days straight and he'd dozed off while they were resting against a tree by a tiny fire and his head had fallen on her shoulder.

It had been weird to see him like that, exhausted and with his guards down for that half hour of shut eye he was taking with her as his pillow.

When he woke up he ignored her and she didn't say anything either because she knew that he probably felt weak for dozing off and because she didn't want to admit that she immediately missed the comfort of another person's skin against her own.

It frightened her but the tought was soon pushed to the edge of her mind when Daryl elbowed her, hard enough to catch her attention but still soft enough not to hurt her.

"Damn it Beth, don't go off dreamin'when I'm tryin'to teach ya'somethin'" Daryl hissed, careful not to be loud and attract walkers.

"Yeah sorry, I'm paying attention now" she swallowed, she hated feeling like she was annoying him.

She studied the way his scarred and dirty fingers worked with the wires, using his knife to strip them and then connect them.

"Right so if this piece of shit would've worked it would now be runnin'" he grunted.

"Oh well" she sighed, her stomach was grumbling.

Daryl sat back in the car seat and pulled his bag on top of his lap, rumaging through it.

"Here" he whispered, offering her a can of sweet corn, she knew it was their last canned 'good' and that it was actually Daryl's.

He had done this ever since they fled the prison, always making sure she was fed and rested before he'd only so much as think of himself.

When she took the can from him she smiled, lightly tracing her thumb over his, she heard his breath hitch like it always did when she unexpectedly touched him.

She peeled the pull off lid back, the sweet smell of the corn making her hunger grow, back before the dead started walking her parents wouldn't even dare to bring canned fruit and vegetables into their home but in today's world every can of food was worth more than gold had ever been in the previous one.

As soon as the first spoon of corn hit the inside of her mouth she moaned softly, immediately turning to Daryl to offer him a spoonfull "c'mon take a bite" she mumbled trying not to spit corn all over Daryl's amused face.

"Damn girl, ain't much of a lady anymore are ya" he chuckled, she had never heard him chuckle or laugh for that matter except for the few times he was playing with Judith.

She was still holding the spoon infront of his face and she was surprised when he didn't take it from her but instead wrapped his mouth around while she was still holding it.

He looked about 10 years younger as the worry crept away from his face and the faint stern lines on his skin smoothed out as he tried to enjoy the simple bite of food as much as possible, he knew it would probably be a while before they'd get any kind of vegetable again.

Beth didn't say anything and just stared at him with a slight smile on her face while Daryl contently chewed and swallowed with closed eyes, he was a handsome man, rugged but with boyish features here and there.

As if she thought he could read her mind she looked away and blushed, he wasn't handsome, he was Daryl Dixon, the redneck hunter who had saved everyone's asses atleast a dozen times.

Suddenly she was ripped from her little dreamworld once again when Daryl shook her "fuck Beth we gotta get out" she looked up and all she could see was a giant herd heading their way, before Daryl pulled her out of the car through the passenger seat.


End file.
